October 13, 2009

I'm a Spring girl at heart, but I do love Autumn when it rolls around. The colors are so rich and the lighting is more dramatic at this time of year. And there's nothing like the smell of Fall... the leaves in the woods, the baking of pies and crisps, and the ripe apples.

So, it's that time of year again, time to make homemade applesauce. It's becoming a tradition for my mom and me and Leann to get together and spend the day making a huge batch.

We started off early at the farm, with our own cute little apple, Aubrie....

We bought our Ida Red apples (they make a pretty pink applesause) and then took a bit of time to admire and smell the beautiful mums....

Then we walked down to visit the animals...

Aubrie got a kick out of the "gucks" (ducks) and the goats...

And then it was back to my mom's house to make our applesauce. Tonight for supper: pork chops and applesauce, of course! (remember that episode from the Brady Bunch?!)

I took the kids to visit my Uncle Jim and Aunt Jann at the greenhouses a couple of days ago. Sarah wanted to get a little gourd pumpkin and she picked out a cute one...

Sarah and Ben walked around quite a bit.... reminds me so much of me and my brother Doug when we were younger and played there...

Doug and I used to build forts and tunnels out of the bales of straw, and just to smell the fresh straw brings back memories. We would have on our winter coats and gloves, but our wrists would get all scratched up from the straw poking in underneath our sleeves. Sarah and Ben climbed around a bit and made 'furniture' out of exposed corners in the pile. I got a nice shot of them together....

There is nowhere near as much straw as there was when Doug and I were little... production has changed a lot in the past thirty years. But there was enough for them to get a taste of what I experienced when I was their age. :-)

July 09, 2009

The past few days have been busy - our July 4th picnic on Saturday, then my nephew celebrated his 14th birthday Tuesday and my step dad celebrated his 56th birthday Wednesday. My family has been together three out of the past five days.

Here are some pictures from all our togetherness (my nieces and nephews like to look for themselves on my blog).

Sarah and Emily...

Elizabeth...

Evan...

Benny...

I LOVE this one - Doug and Aubrie....

Elliott....

The funniest thing ever - Eston was goofy enough having a Dora the Explorer birthday cake, but then he fell coming out the door and the cake got completely smashed....

Grandad with 10 of his 11 (soon to be 12) grandkids....

Okay guys - there you go. Wait! I almost forgot! One more, for my brother, the nutty carpenter....

July 05, 2009

June 28, 2009

Benny had his field of dreams night at Coca Cola Park this evening. His team and other teams from our local athletic association got to go out on the field, meet mascots Ferrus and FeFe, have their group picture taken and then stand with the Iron Pigs for the national anthem.....

My little Yankee...

And I took this one of Todd and Sarah while Ben was out on the field... I see the resemblance for sure here!....

June 21, 2009

The kids made new art work for Todd's office wall and I want to give him a nice, recent photo of the kids to hang there as well, so I took a few this afternoon and this is the one I'll have enlarged for him....

My brother Doug and his little girl, Aubrie....

Todd and Ben....

My little girl, that isn't so little anymore...

My nephew, Gabe....

....and his sister, Lily, who is very excited to explore the back yard....